My Turn

G’day my loyal blog readers.  I haven’t made an appearance since January and for that I apologize.  I can give plenty of excuses about how life is busy and that I don’t have time and yada yada yada.  While that may be true to some degree, it’s all about priorities and making time for things.  I remember my Dad shutting down one of my many excuses as a teenager where I was complaining about not having enough time for something.  He wisely pointed out the amount of time I spent on computer games and reading photography magazines or playing with my camera and made me remember that it’s not so much a question of having time, but making time for what was most important.

Alright, with that out of the way, a quick update on the life at the Junior Buhler household.  Karen and I have been waking up very sore recently.  That’s right, we’re experiencing the bittersweet feeling one gets the day or two after exercise.  We have been very diligent with our athletic endeavors recently.  Karen went on this exercise kick on the tail end of her last sickness and dragged me into it as well.  I got a spouse pass for the KU Rec center and have enjoyed playing racquetball again.  It’s one of my favorite sports because no matter how hard you hit the ball, it can only go about 15ft in any direction.  Unlike tennis where you have to go chasing after balls you miss (or hit over the fence when you’re over zealous) racquetball keeps the ball close.  Karen is showing vast improvement as well.  She has gone from being afraid of the ball and rarely hitting it back at the wall to being able to score (accidentally, I’m sure) from time to time.  The racquetball courts are very popular.  Reservations have to be made early in the day for an evening match.  We found that out the hard way when we sat outside all 4 courts for about an hour and never got a chance to play.  Lesson learned.  Make reservations.

Last week was Spring Break and I spent the majority of it in North Carolina.  Work sent me to UNC Chapel Hill for sorority composite pictures.  A long time ago our family lived in the Raleigh-Durham area but I don’t remember any of it.  The only things I remember from North Carolina were the big trees in our backyard that beautifully framed the swimming pool I was determined to dig myself.  Oh yeah, this three-year-old was undaunted by such a grown-up task.  Later I found out that my Dad spend a full weekend filling in the holes before we moved to Kentucky.  Sorry Dad.  You’re a trooper!  My only other memory I have from North Carolina was meeting my imaginary friend Hodie on the beach.  For those of you not well acquainted with Hodie, he is a red Tiger from Pennsylvania.  He and I were buds.  Many an afternoon was spent with my loyal red Tiger friend that closely resembled Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame.  You all know, “They’re Greeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaattt!”  I really liked North Carolina.  I would consider living there some day.  Raleigh is currently the fastest growing city in America so apparently it’s a popular place.  I liked the plethora of great universities in the area.  It’s arguably the College Basketball Mecca of the US.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Rock Chalk Jayhawk for life but that’s some high quality stuff over there.  I also liked the trees and hills and green all over the place.  Oh, and don’t let the North in North Carolina fool you.  In real life, North Carolina is really very southern.  I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just southern.

In other news, we had dinner at my Grandmother’s to celebrate yet another of my Dad’s birthdays.  I’m not telling you which one because you won’t believe me anyways.  I love dinners with family so close.  Sorry Amelia and Kristen, we have quite the monopoly on the local family benefits.

Finally, I’m going to make an announcement.  I’m going to start a photography blog.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now but I’m tired of not making the time to do it.  Most of my blog will be how-to and technical details of the photographs I make.  I’ve fallen in love with the website Flickr over the last 6 months and I find so many ideas and things I want to try and I would like to record my progress in the blog.  I will also give some helpful hints and suggestions to those of you who don’t know as much about photography.  If you want to check out some of my stuff, you can look at my Flickr photostream and read the descriptions of my pictures.  I’m all about giving detailed descriptions so others can duplicate the effect and learn from my methods.

Here’s my most recent work.  I should have been doing homework but this is just so much more fun. 

We still have a blog?!

Yeah...sorry about that.  We like to switch off weeks, but the past weeks (months) have been pretty busy and that just hasn't happened.  Now, I am supposed to be working on four major projects, Adam is working a photo shoot all day, there are piles of laundry to put away and dishes to wash, and I have discovered the perfect way to procrastinate.  BLOG!

So, back in January, my sister-in-law went into KC for a doctor's visit (she was about six weeks away from the baby's due dat), so I was watching the niecews.  Well, they left that appointment and went straight to the hospital....five hours later, we had a new nephew!  He was a tiny one, but boy, was he healthy!  Luckily Momma Jenn is doing much better now too.  So, that night, Grandma Carol, Uncle Adam, and I took Lilli and Bubs to see their new brother, Baby Buzz (his nickname courtesy of Julian...his real name is Emerson....so cute!).

He got to come home three days later so we brought over some welcoming outfits (though they were huge for his 4 lb. body!).  Adam took some newborn pictures of him and we've been able to watch him a few times - he's a keeper!

In February, we made the trek over to Topeka High to see Miss Rachel in "Beauty and the Beast."  The show was awesome, but Rachel was by far my favorite (no bias at all, of course).  She played the feather duster, Babette, and was hilarious.  

One Sunday in there, Adam's mom got real adventurous with dinner plans and invited us over to help make some authentic Chinese food.  We're talking sweet and sour pork and real eggrolls!  I have found my new calling in life.  And I outate Adam when it came to eggrolls (well, I tied, but that was way more than what he expected me to do!  I'm usually a lightweight).

This brings us to March!  My sister Deborah had introduced me to the artist Brett Dennen over Christmas Break and I had been hooked from the start (he's awesome...you will all love him).  Well, we found out he was playing at the Bottleneck for super cheap, so Debbie came up from Manhatten and my former roommate Brooke came with us too.  It. Was. Awesome.  This was my first concert post-mission, so I had forgotten that if they say it starts at 8, they really mean they will set up at 8:30, the opening band will play at 9:15, then they will do more set up and the real show won't start until it's past your bedtime.  Other than that, it was AWESOME!

This was my first time not to have X's planted on my hands, so I was pretty stoked.  We rubbed it in Debbie's face for a bit.

Did I mention I had a graduate class in Kansas City the same evening?  Oops.  It works out nicely when you discover the day before that the girls you carpool with had also gotten tickets for the same concert.  We just left early!

Here he is in all his awesomeness.  He bears a slight resemblance to Ron Weasley, but has dance moves like Beyonce.  It's awesome (the adjective of choice for this post).

Following this amazing concert, I gave Adam his CD's and assigned him to learn all of them and love Brett as much as I do.  He's getting there!

Two weeks ago, Adam got a major cold (the word cold doesn't even do it justice).  He was out of commission for over a week, but I was pretty stoked I hadn't caught it.  After all, my immune system is superior.  Well, pride brought me down.  And that cold.  I stayed home from church last Sunday and work and school on Monday and Tuesday.  I still feel pretty gross, but at least my head isn't swimming if I sit up.  In the midst of my sickness, I still managed to complete my brand new music video for the ward talent show (I'll post it on here once it has premiered...it's pretty awesome).  I also got a strange desire to exercise more.  So, for the first time since before my mission (almost four years now...), I went over to the Student Rec Center and worked out.  Four times in the past week!  Impressive for me.  There are some dance aerobics classes that I signed up for and we got Adam a spouse pass he can use until he is a student at KU.  We even "played" racquetball for our date last night!  I say "played" because after two minutes on the court, the score was 10-1, I got hit in the nose by a ball and started crying, and Adam decided it might be better just to work on hitting the ball than actually playing yet.  I love my husband.

Another reason why I love him - his photography skills (and bow hunting skills....).  For a scholarship I received, I had to send in a headshot and a bio.  Well, I didn't have any headshots that I really liked, so Adam came to the rescue.  I think we got the winning shot in two minutes, but Adam wouldn't put the camera down for another half hour, so we got lots of interesting pictures.